Warning - you better have some time if you're going to read this blog post. There are a TON of photos and this is only half of the vacation pictures. Here we go!
After a 9 hour car ride to Rapid City South Dakota, in which the kids did AMAZING, we arrived at our hotel. The highlight was the pool and waterside.
One of Luke's best friends Pat and his family joined us on vacation. They have 3 boys similar ages to ours. Drew is 5.5, Kael is 3.5 and Flynn is 8 months.
All 3, absolutely loved the waterside. Dylan and Will would go down themselves but Lauren needed one of us. I think we heard "one more time" at least 100 times that afternoon.
It's tiny but you can see the dinosaur on top of the hill up there. I convinced the boys they were real and may come and get them while they were sleeping if they weren't good! :)
After swimming awhile, we headed to Storybook Island.
Basically a huge park with lots of structures and characters from stories. Here is Will with Peter Pan's never land house.
the 3 little pigs
this was Winnie the Pooh but she was too scared to follow the boys through the tunnel
Cinderella!
Snow White and the 7 dwarfs
Lauren loved the princesses
101 Dalmatians
This photo is for Cannon! The kids were actually kind of scared of this one, I think it was the witch on top so I didn't get a photo with them in it.
Yogi Bear
just a water fountain :)
Ariel
and some fun, trying to burn some energy since they sat in a car all day long
the view were gorgeous!
The next morning we headed out of Rapid City and headed south. Our first stop was Bear Country U.S.A.
We had heard it was overpriced for what it was, but the kids LOVED it!
Elk, these were literally 5 feet from the window.
Reindeer
Arctic Wolves
I can't remember what this was called...I think it was a type of goat
Bears!! This one kept walking in front of the cars.
there were sooo many bears
and they were so close to the car
buffalo
the favorite of the day were the baby bears though, they were just so cute!
pretty sure we watched them for a good 30 minutes
The Griffins!
and us!
next we headed to Reptile Gardens. I was a bit terrified because the lady in the hotel told me that there were snakes hanging from the tree branches here. My response was, "with nets between them and us, right?" No...just hanging there...ahhhhh!!
I told Luke going in, "don't point out the snakes, I don't want to see any, I'm going to put my head down and walk"
And that's what I did. I guess there was only 1 actually "hanging" but still, ugh!
Upstairs were the most deadly, dangerous snakes in the world. yeah, more fun! :) This one was huge, I was really trying not to look but they wanted a photo.
I don't know what was in there...but I did look at the sign
she loved them, not my daughter apparently
then we headed outside for an alligator show
he jumped on top and closed his mouth with his hands
then he fed them for us
After the show the boys got to touch the baby alligator. He was 2 years old.
Then we mined for "gold". This may have been the kids favorite thing we did because they kept asking to do it again.
Mount Rushmore...at reptile gardens
Giant tortoises
One of them was 108 years old, crazy!
Next we stopped at Cosmos Mystery Area. I had no idea what to expect here but it was interesting. Lauren is waiting for our group tour to start.
The tour was basically showing "mystery" or "hot spots" or illusions. This is totally blurry but they took us into this house that was built on a hill. Will literally fell down trying to walk in it.
Lauren wanted me but couldn't get to me because she couldn't walk.
Our tour guide standing on the wall
Luke trying to get his balance
then the boys had to try
After Cosmos, we drove through Hill City on the way to our campground in Custer.
Hill City was a cool, old looking town
After setting up camp, relaxing for the afternoon we headed out on our Chuck wagon dinner show. The boys got to ride along the cowboy up front in the wagon.
Beautiful! I could totally live in the mountains, I loved it.
This was our entertainer while the cowboys cooked our dinner. He sang, told jokes, was great.
dinner being cooked
the bathroom
our entertainment while waiting for dinner
Dinner was steak (which clearly Dylan loved), cowboy beans, friend potatoes, and dessert
apparently you don't use utensils out west :)
my loves!
Lauren found the ax?
gorgeous out here and very few mosquitos...apparently they don't have many in SD?
That evening we got all the kids in the tent...sleeping...and enjoyed the "super moon". I have no idea what that means but Jackie said it was a super moon and it was beautiful out there.
More to come on the final 2 days...
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